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SALT LAKE CITY — Bugsplat is the name of a military software program designed to minimize the amount of civilian casualties during unmanned drone strikes. According to a group of artists, though, it’s also the term used to describe a kill by drone operators.
Identified by the hashtag #notabugsplat, a large art installation project, created by artists with the collaboration of Inside Out, aims to reduce the number of civilians killed in unmanned drone strikes. Since 2004, drone strikes have killed an estimated 160 children, according to Inside Out’s website.
“To challenge this insensitivity as well as raise awareness of civilian casualties, an artist collective installed a massive portrait facing up in the heavily bombed Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa region of Pakistan, where drone attacks regularly occur,” a blog post for #notabugsplat states.
Now, when viewed by a drone camera, what an operator sees on his screen is not an anonymous dot on the landscape, but an innocent child victim’s face.”
The installations are massive paintings and photographs of victims of drone strikes, highly visible to overhead aircraft. The artists involved in the project said they hope showing a more human side to drone attacks will help reduce the number of civilian casualties in Pakistan.
“Humans appear as disposable bugs when viewed through a drone camera,” a statement from the artists reads. “We’ve changed this. Now a drone will see an actual face of a child, creating dialogue, and possibly, empathy.”
In May of 2013, President Obama gave a speech at the National Defense University outlining his position on the use of unmanned drone attacks.
“And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured — the highest standard we can set,” Obama said. “Now, this last point is critical, because much of the criticism about drone strikes — both here at home and abroad — understandably centers on reports of civilian casualties.”
Obama went on to outline the military’s justification for drone use in fighting suspected terrorists.
“Remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians,” Obama said, “and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes.”
Artists involved in the #notabugsplat project said they were met by enthusiasm when they traveled to rural Pakistani towns to set up their work and see a need for continued caution when operating unmanned drone attacks.
“The group traveled inside KPK province and, with the assistance of highly enthusiastic locals, unrolled the poster amongst mud huts and farms,” #notabugsplat’s website states, “It is their hope that this will create empathy and introspection amongst drone operators, and will create dialogue amongst policy makers, eventually leading to decisions that will save innocent lives.”
